Ayo Dosunmu scored 29 points and dished out seven assists to help the Chicago Bulls defeat the Atlanta Hawks 136-126 on Monday night. DeMar DeRozan also scored 29 points, while Nikola Vucevic added 24 points and 11 rebounds. Coby White tallied 20 points and seven assists.
Bogdan Bogdanovic and De’Andre Hunter led the Hawks off the bench. Bogdanovic had 28 points, while Hunter added 23. Trae Young scored 19 points but went 2 for 10 from three.
“We didn’t want to make it a shootout, but we wanted to play fast,” Dosunmu said in a statement. “Even when we score, they get it out quickly. We wanted to go head to head with them. We tried to do our best to guard on defense, but the way the game was going, both teams were scoring, and we made some important stops down the line.”
The victory kept Chicago two games ahead of the Hawks for the No. 9 seed in the East. The Bulls have won both of their games versus Atlanta this season.
Dosunmu went 12 of 18 from the floor and 5 of 7 from three. He constantly caused chaos on the Atlanta defense with drives to the hoop that created opportunities for himself and his teammates.
“We didn’t start well, but Ayo’s pace and tempo in the second quarter helped us get back into the game. “He went downhill,” said Bulls coach Billy Donovan. “Whether it was him knocking down some 3s or getting to the rim, he did a lot of good things tonight.”
The Hawks had won six of their previous eight games, but they allowed the Bulls to shoot 55.4% from the field and 46.4% from three, slowing their momentum as the All-Star break approached. Coming into the game, the Bulls were averaging 111.5 points per game.
“We had a lot of late switches,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder explained. “We all have to be better guarding the ball.”
The Bulls trailed for most of the first half, but finished the second quarter on a 12-2 surge to grab a 60-59 lead. Dosunmu scored eight points during the run, and Chicago scored on five consecutive possessions.
The Hawks were without starter center Clint Capela, who will be out until after the All-Star break with a left adductor injury.
Torrey Craig started in place of Alex Caruso, who suffered a foot injury in the Bulls’ previous game against Orlando.
